The basics

What’s at stake

Pride, especially with Howell being winless. Nothing would be sweeter for the Highlanders than a win tonight. Brighton, meanwhile, needs a win to stay in contention for the KLAA Black Division title. The division title picture will be much clearer after tonight, with Livonia Stevenson and Canton playing each other. The Bulldogs play Canton in two weeks, and a Brighton win sets up a showdown regardless of how Canton fares tonight.

A little slobber-knocking

Dave Pearson, who played for Brighton, the University of Michigan and the Detroit Lions in his football career, once said the only games ha participated in where guys hit harder than Brighton-Howell were the Michigan-Ohio State games he played in. “Both schools have a lot of pride,” Howell coach Aaron Metz said. “And both schools want to do well. I’ve been around this (rivalry) for quite a few of them (16, to be exact), and it always seems to be a hard-hitting game and people go after it, no matter what the record books are, becuase they want to show what they can do.”

Behind the center

Brighton quarterback Will Jontz, who came out in pads for warmups last week before the coaching staff opted to keep him out of last weeks game, will be a game-time decision this week, Brighton coach Brian Lemons said. “Right now, we have full clearance on Will,” Lemons said. “He’s ready to go. We’ll probably decide during warmups which way we’re going to go on that.” If not, Spencer Mykols, who has led Brighton to wins in each of the last two weeks, will start. For Howell, Matt Hornyak threw for 187 yards in last week’s loss to Franklin.

The difference?

It will likely come to field position and possibly fatigue. Brighton kicker Rudy Ramirez has been booming kickoffs lately, all of them for touchbacks against Novi and Livonia Stevenson. It should be a cooler night than it was the last two weeks, but Brighton’s roster advantage (the Bulldogs have twice as many players as Howell) should come into play in the second half, as it has the last two weeks.

What night is it?

Asked if homecoming might be a distraction, Brighton coach Brian Lemons cut the questioner short. “That’s next week,” he said. “This is Howell week, baby!”, as if to say facing Howell presented enough challenges, thank you very much.